Our final week of voting for CommuniCause is drawing to a close, and we certainly hope that you have found the contest valuable to your organization. If you’ve been following our blog tips, you have mastered the basics of social media. You know how to leverage Facebook, Twitter, email lists and even your website to promote your organization and mobilize your supporters. So where do you go from here?

To help you out, we’ve compiled some key topics to consider while continuing to develop your social media strategy. Don’t get overwhelmed now that you’ve reached this point. Start small, continue to build social media into your existing processes and allow it to grow naturally.

Are You Providing Quality?

If you are looking to establish a good relationship with your followers, you need to provide them with something of value.

Is your content engaging? Consider the tone you convey in your posts and updates: are you mostly providing static, factual statements or do the updates feel personal? Providing facts and information is a necessity, but be sure you aren’t neglecting the personal aspect of social media. It’s all about having a conversation with your followers.

Think about what your followers want - what are they looking to get out of this relationship? Perhaps they have a desire to keep in the know about breaking news in your space, or maybe they just want to know how they can help. How will you know? Ask them. Talk to those who are already within your reach. Ask what they like, what they want to see more of and find a medium that you can handle.

Often they are interested in updates on what your organization is doing. They want to know about the day-to-day operations and the change that you are making. Who did you help today? What is the news from who you helped last week? If they crave more details than you can fit into status updates, a blog might be a great way to further the relationship. But make sure that they know what is being published - not everyone keeps up with RSS feeds. Use Twitter, Facebook and other media as a supporting tool.

And certainly don’t forget to acknowledge everyone who has helped your organization, just as you would in person. That’s a big part of the personal, engaging aspect of Social Media. You have a great way to let them know how much you appreciate them, and that is an invaluable tool.

Monitor Your Web Presence

Keep track of what people are saying about your organization. Each mention is an opportunity to connect.

A number of free tools exist that allow you to keep up with the conversation. Various search engines scour social media platforms for terms of your choosing. And as it would be time consuming to run these queries each day on the numerous platforms, we have an easier way for you to do it.

Luckily, many of these resources create an RSS feed each time you search. The feed continues to be updated long after you made the initial inquiry. This allows you to use a free application, such as Google Reader,  to collect these feeds and see new results as they are posted. When finally set up, it will work in a similar way to your email box. If you’re not yet familiar, or need to learn more about Google Reader, you may want to read this easy guide from CNET on how to use the tool.

The next step is to find the relevant search engines, compile your searches and save the RSS feeds into folders on your reader. To start with, here are a few resources, but you are likely to find others along the way that fit your specific needs.

Google Alerts
Twitter Search
Technorati Blog Search
BoardTracker Forum Discussion Search
Digg Social News Search
Delicious Social Bookmark Search

The second part of this equation is to respond. Open up a channel with those who are commenting about your organization - whether it be positive or negative. Thank people for positive mentions. If someone has said something negative, ask them for clarification, offer to make amends if appropriate. Oftentimes, just the simple act of responding to someone’s opinion will diffuse a negative situation. If they know you are listening, and you care about your followers, they are less likely to continue their negative comments.

And finally, remember to capitalize on good publicity. If an article is written about your organization, post a link to it on your social media sites. Put a screenshot of it on your blog, and say thank you on your website. The more people who know about positive publicity, the more people will comment on it. And positive conversations about your organization are great ways to find new supporters!

Know Your Target Market

One of the next steps in advanced social media is the use of niche social networking sites. Think about your cause, and what sites your supporters might be utilizing. For example, if you are a foundation supporting adult literacy, there are many sites specifically for avid readers. Finding them can be as easy as searching Google. Pair key terms relevant to your organization with “forum”, “group”, “network”, “community” or other related terms. Establish a presence on such a sites, and you are likely to find a perfectly targeted audience - one that can be very receptive to your message.

Also, consider a blog for long-term relationship building. A blog allows you to be more personal than Facebook or Twitter, and it can be a great compliment to these sites. This will allow you to share stories about your organization, or detail your current projects.

So Many Options, So Little Time

We understand: you have to focus on your organization’s mission, and you only have so much time to devote to Social Media. With all the options out there, how do you choose what to spend your precious time doing? How will you know you’re getting the most return on your investment of time? Here are a few tips to help you develop your growth strategy.

Set Manageable Goals
Set the number of social networking sites you’d like to have a presence on, and choose a time frame in which to accomplish this. Test the waters and find what is most effective. You already have an idea of how much time it takes to maintain your presence on these sites from your experience on Facebook and Twitter. Perhaps that’s all you have time to manage right now – and that’s perfectly acceptable. Focus on quality of presence over quantity, and you will develop a real relationship with your followers. This will benefit your organization in the long run.

Set a specific number of updates to post each day. Be realistic, set a goal and stick with it. Focus on quality and consistency. This will help keep your followers engaged, and they will be happy knowing what to expect. If you have more ideas in one day than you want to post, consider using a program like HootSuite to set up automatic tweets for following days when you might be too busy or have less to share.

Remember that some sites are just for learning. Some may be more valuable to your organization as a learning tool than as a vehicle for community outreach. Don’t worry about blanketing every network that you are involved with with your marketing messages.

Remember that we are all in this together. Are you actively networking with other philanthropic organizations? Supporting others is an excellent way to show your followers that you care about many causes and are engaged in helping many people. Check out @nonprofitorgs on Twitter for a great list of nonprofit organizations around the world. Perhaps you will even find an organization that compliments your own and can help you on your mission.

When you pay it forward, we all win. Think about any charities that have given your organization help, or touched you personally. Tell your followers about these organizations, and any complimentary ones you have found. Tell your followers about interesting, touching or newsworthy events other nonprofits have held. Your followers will appreciate the interesting stories, and the other organizations will appreciate the publicity. If we all help each other out, we can accomplish so much more than we will in isolation.

Thank you for joining us on this journey, and we hope to have been able to provide some insight to help you on your way. Feel free to reach out to us if you have any questions.

Laura Iles
Twitter @LauraIles
407.838.1010

Arthur Wilbur
Twitter @At1MP
407.756.1377

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